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The Characteristics of Times of Shiji Dramas in Legendary Opera
of Ming Dynasty
Wei Dai College of Chinese Language and Literature, Northwest
Normal University, Lanzhou 730070, China
Keywords: Shiji Dramas, Characteristics of Times, Advocate
Legendary, Confrotation of Emotion and Neo-Confucianism
Abstract: The Chuanqi Opera in Ming Dynasty is an important link
in the chain of ancient Chinese operas. Shiji Opera is one of the
themes of Chuanqi Opera in Ming Dynasty. It not only inherited the
gene of Shiji, also disseminated the spirit of the times and has
distinct characteristics of the times. It is mainly manifested in
two aspects: "advocate legendary" and "confrotation of emotion and
Neo-Confucianism". It indicates the unique aesthetic style of the
Ming Dynasty and characteristics of these times. At the same time,
it is also the reflection of ideological and cultural changes in
drama art.
1. Introduction It is a common phenomenon in the society that
people in Ming Dynasty are still “advocate
legendary”.Mr. Yingde Guo thinks, "inspired by modern cultural
thought, under the impact of modern aesthetic interest, under the
influence of modern turbulent society, from the booming period, the
Chaunqi writers of literati have produced a strong rebellious
mentality, seeking to break away from the norms of the network,
boldly seeking novelty in the creation of Chuanqi Opera."[1]
2. Advocate Legendary In the theoretical concept of Chuanqi
writers in the Ming Dynasty, "legendary" is an artistic
effect from inside to outside, which is expressed by Chuanqi
Opera, in other words, "legendary" is the essential feature of
Chuanqi Opera. It includes two points: one is odd and strange, that
is, strange characters and strange plot. The two is a peculiar
style of writing, this is from the way of expression.
2.1 Strange characters and things are strange In the Shiji
opera, most of the characters come from Shiji, and Sima Qian
himself has strong "
advocate legendary " tendencies, so Shiji is also called
"legendary book". However, as a historical work, it is impossible
for Shiji to depict every strange person and every things
comprehensively and meticulously, its omissions is an excellent
material for historian playwrights. In this case, we take "Qiefu
Ji" as an example, to analyze how the historian writers created
strange people and constructed strange things.
Ru Ji in Shiji, is the appearance of a legendary woman. But Ru
Ji's image in the biography is very thin, neither a comprehensive
introduction to her life story, nor a detailed description of her
personality characteristics, even the consequences of her theft of
a soldier's identity were not known. In Qiefu Ji, in order to make
the strange and thin image of Ruji fuller, Zhang Fengyi, a writer,
fully utilized the artistic techniques of addition, fiction and
affiliation to reconstruct and modify the image of Ru ji. In Qiefu
Ji, Ru Ji was born poor and her father was murdered, she wanted
revenge, but it was difficult to do so,so she asked the XinLing Jun
to revenge her father, and said that as long as revenge is
successful, sacrifice is no harm, then XinLing Jun presented the
enemy's head, such as Ji's resentment, which was just like the
heavy filial piety of Ru Ji. However, Ru Ji in the play "more"
understanding report, XinLing Jun begged her to steal soldier's
identity to save Zhao, she knew that this would certainly lead to
death. After the incident was exposed, the king of Wei
2018 International Conference on Culture, Literature, Arts &
Humanities (ICCLAH 2018)
Copyright © (2018) Francis Academic Press, UK DOI:
10.25236/icclah.18.026--114--
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tortured maid severely, Ru Ji with sympathy, voluntarily
confessed his actions to the king of Wei, willing to accept crimes,
which is as good as Ru Ji. Yan En, the inner envoy, was sent to
XinLing Jun by Ruji, the king of Wei wanted to kill Yan En, Ruji
falsely claimed that Yan En was given a sachet to XinLing Jun's
wife., Yan En did not know that the sachet was inside and saved Yan
En's life,this was Ruji's wisdom. Under the portrayal of the writer
Zhang Fengyi, the image of RuJi was immediately flesh and blood on
paper.
Except to the strange man, the book is more constructed strange
affair clearly. There are two stories in the book of Qiefu Ji:
steal soldier's identity to save Zhao, resistance to the Qin and to
save Wei. But Zhang Fengyi put more emphasis on the former, why did
he do that? The reason lies not only in the important position of
stealing soldier's identity to save Zhao in history, but also in
the legendary nature of the event itself. At that time, Qin troops
encircling Handan, the PingYuan Jun and his wife asked for help
from King of Wei and XinLing Jun, King of Wei is threatened by the
King of Qin, dare not help. On the occasion of the crisis, Hou Ying
offered a stratagem of theft for XinLing Jun. The reason why this
strategy is legendary and fascinating is the word "stealing",
extraordinary things have been acquired by extraordinary meansa nd
thus gained a special right, the acquisition of such right is a
risk of decapitation. The design of stolen is closely related. But
Shiji only depicts the rough clues of the theft, which is not
exhaustive, however, Qiefu Ji has played the artistic
characteristics of describing the event in depth and meticulously,
within the framework of the original story, it is a vivid and
realistic wonder to convey blood and build muscles for the theft by
means of fiction, kneading and fabrication. When the playwright
tells the story of stolen, he can dig and exploit it it deeply,
show the whole story and details one by one, and form a close
logical relationship between the size and details, which greatly
improves the rationality and authenticity of the story,and the size
of the details of the composition of a close logical relationship,
its rationality, authenticity has been greatly improved, in line
with the reality of life and the audience's aesthetic, such a
legendray story constituted.
2.2 Strange article That is, the writing method is odd.1. Use an
ambush pen. Ru Ji thought of his kindness and
prayed for he. But at the end of this section, she said to Yan
Yan:" if necessary, let me know."[2]This sentence is definitely not
the casual words of author Zhang Fengyi, but is intended for it. It
can provide foreshadowing for the theft, so that it can be
justified, but it does not appear abrupt.2. Inverted sequence of
plots. In the biography of the XinLing Jun, the plot of the game
between Xin Ling Jun and King of Wei was arranged before Xin Ling
Jun invite Hou Ying. But in Qiefu Ji, the order of the two is
reversed. This tiny change in layout bring remarkable results. Xin
Ling Jun is playing chess with king of Wei, Zhao troops suddenly
went to the frontier, and the king of Wei was startled. He wanted
to call the minister to discuss the strategy of resisting the
enemy. However, Xin Ling Jun said very calmly:" the king of Zhao
hunting in southern suburbs, so you panic in the north." After
this, the King of Wei had jealousy for XinLing Jun. When the King
of Wei had a distrust of XinLing Jun, Qin would kill 400,000 Zhao
troops in the battle of Changping, and Zhao was in danger. However,
the King of Wei was forced by the Qin Kingdom to engage in immoral
rescue and did not launch substantive rescue to Zhao. After the
reversal of the plot, the causal relationship is clear, close and
coherent, the crisis is urgent, and the situation of the swords is
lively on paper, not only proves the dimness and cowardice of the
King of Wei, but also reflects the XinLing Ling's desperate
dedication to safeguarding national interests.
3. Confrotation of Emotion and Neo-Confucianism In the early
Ming Dynasty, Cheng Zhu Neo-Confucianism occupied an absolute
dominant
position in the ideological circles, influenced by it, most
traditional operas advocated feudal ethics and moral education.
Such as Pipa Ji, Wulun Quanbei Ji, Xiangnang Ji.
Since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, the ruling class has
been decaying day by day, the commodity economy has been developing
rapidly, the capitalist relations of production have sprouted, new
ideas have sprung up, a trend of opposing the fetters of
Neo-Confucianism,
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advocating natural humanity and affirming the human desire for
material things has been prevalent in the ideological and cultural
circles. This trend of thought swept across the country and
penetrated into all aspects of social life. The main reason for its
formation was the spread of Wang Yangming's theory of mind. Wang
Yangming attempt to transplant feudal order, morality and ethics
into people's hearts has become their internal needs, not their
external constraints. But "the principle of "mind is reason" is
becoming increasingly perceptual, increasingly, from external
heavenly principles, norms and order to inner nature, emotion and
even desire."[3] Echoing this philosophy of human desire, the
literary trend of "emotion" has been raised in the literary world,
the "emotiont" is the sentiment of nature and human nature, and is
a bold break from the fetters of the feudal ethics. This is
especially prominent in the QinXin Ji.
The QinXin Ji takes the story of the elopement in Sima Xiangru
an Zhuo Wenjun, blends the distinct characteristics of the times,
and vigorously sings the love between the two. The central conflict
in QinXin Ji is the confrontation between love as human nature and
feudal moral concepts that bind human body and mind. In terms of
Sima Xiangru an Zhuo Wenjun, Xiangru handsome and talented, Wen Jun
is rich, smart and demure, the two people disregard the family
status and then elopement together. Even after being faced with the
poverty, Wen Jun never left behind, but they depended on each
other. As an independent love story, its romantic practice of
elopement has broken through the rules and regulations of feudal
ethics, with the characteristics of personality liberation, which
is in line with the cultural trend of thought in the late Ming
Dynasty. In terms of QinXin Ji, the author praises the sincere love
of Xiangru and Wenjun, affirms their free love behavior, and
expresses their inner world of longing for love and bold pursuit of
love. Xiangru and Wenjun, they interpreted each other's musical
sounds, exchanged their ideas, ignored the feudal ethics and
morals, and loved each other for life, which embodied the yearning
for true love. In the face of villains teasing and feudal
parents'siege, Wenjun did not yield, she rebelled against the
feudal orthodox forces in the way of becoming a nun, reflecting the
incompatibility between emotion and reason. It is worth noting that
Wen Jun's elopement at night is achieved by jumping through walls,
it shows the courage of two people to break through the yoke of
ritual and bondage. For Xiangru, facing the seduction and
flirtation of women, he did not move, and firmly guarded Wenjun's
love.
What reflects love and feudal ethics and morals, and wins by
love, is also reflected in Zhang Fengyi's GuanYuan Ji. When JunWANG
Hou knowing Wang Li's true identity, she was in private with FA
Zhang, and even had sex with him. This is further than QinXin Ji,
it shows the awakening of human nature and the rationality of human
desires.
4. Conclusions Shiji opera not only inherited the “advocate
legendray”, but also disseminated the spirit of the
times, with distinctive characteristics of the times. It is
mainly manifested in two aspects: "advocate legendary" and
"confrotation of emotion and Neo-Confucianism". They reflect the
aesthetic taste of the Ming Dynasty, it is the embodiment of the
change of thought in drama.
References [1] Guo Yingde. A Study of Literati Chuanqi Opera of
Ming and Qing Dynasty[M] Beijing Normal University
Press.2001(230-231) [2] Zhang Fengyi. Zhang Fengyi’s Opera
Collection[M] Zhong Hua Book Company.1994(255) [3] Guo Yingde. A
Study of Literati Chuanqi Opera of Ming and Qing Dynasty[M] Beijing
Normal University Press.2001(97)
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